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The Best New York Style Pizza Dough and 14 Tips for Success!!

I’ve been making a lot of this NY style pizza dough recipe …. The obsession started a while back, and I’ve finally found a recipe that I love the best! After years of experiments (and I mean years!), I am now using this recipe based on recommendations from the many fine pizza makers at www.pizzamaking.com and the late great Dough Doctor, Tom Lehmann.

best New York Style pizza dough recipe

Making Pizza Dough at Home

Making NY style pizza dough is definitely somewhat of an art form. There are so many variables that can be changed aside from the ingredients alone. For example, these variables include:

  • oven temperature
  • temperature of the water used to make the dough
  • proofing methods (room temp vs cold rise)
  • order of adding the ingredients (yes, this makes a big difference!)
  • mixing time
  • use of autolyse
  • use of poolish (I don’t do this or the one before, although I have in the past)

And then of course, the toppings which can be simple or as complex as you’d like. But don’t worry too much about all of this – my method is easy and straightforward. Plus, you will make better dough than 99% of the pizza chains out there. You will not want take out anymore!

best new york pizza dough recipe cheese

My Favorite Pizza Dough: The Big Secret (How You Proof the Dough)

My all-time favorite dough is NY style dough, which really is classic pizza dough that is stretched out into a thin crust pizza. This type of pizza dough contains water, flour, salt, instant yeast, and olive oil (and sugar especially when baking in a home oven, to help browning).

After it is mixed, it is proofed (left to rise/ferment) in the refrigerator for a minimum of 24 hours and up to 72 hours (it can also be frozen) – this is the big secret.  I’ve used the dough up to 5 or 6 days afterwards, so you can essentially prepare dough for the week.

This recipe produces a crisp yet foldable crust that is tender, light, and flavorful and will make enough for four 14-inch pizzas. You can easily double or half the recipe to make 2 or 8 pizzas.

slices of ny style pizza

Fourteen Tips for Success

Tip 1: Choosing the flour

Use high-quality flour – I like to use King Arthur’s all purpose or bread flour; higher protein (ie, bread) flours work best. However, I prefer all-purpose flour because I like a lighter, airy crust.

Tip 2: Adding the yeast

Do not add instant dry yeast (IDY) directly to cold or cool water – you may shock the yeast (add the IDY to your flour instead) (please note that IDY differs from active dry yeast, which must be activated by adding it to water).

Tip 3: How much yeast?

Use only enough yeast to “get the job done” – yeast eats the sugar in your flour to produce its leavening effects – I find that if you use too much, your dough will be tasteless (this is just my opinion); however, it is a fact, that too much yeast can make your dough taste bad. Most recipes out there, some of them in well known, published books contain too much yeast!

Tip 4: Cold ferment that pizza dough!

Always use your refrigerator.  The best NY style doughs “ferment” or “cure” in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours and up to 48 72 hours. This is called a “cold rise” (vs warm rise on your kitchen counter).

The refrigerator is used to retard (or slow) the dough’s fermentation, allowing that distinctive flavor to come through (ever wonder why some pizza crust tastes different than others, despite the fact that they are both made from just about the same exact ingredients? – this is a big reason why!)

When your dough rises too quickly, the flavor will not develop optimally. Slow rise = MUCH better flavor.

Tip 5: Weigh those ingredients!

Use a scale to weigh the flour instead of using a measuring cup – it is much more accurate and will yield superior results. I’ll admit, I resisted doing this for a loooong time. Just do it. You’ll be glad you did and your dough will be more consistent and much improved.

Tip 6: Add oil last

Mix the oil in as the last step, after the flour has all been incorporated. This is important to allow the flour to hydrate properly.

Tip 7: Flour your dough balls

Before tossing or opening your dough balls, flour them *very* well on each side (if you are a beginner) to ensure they do not stick to your counter or pizza peel. I sometimes use a bit more flour after I begin spreading them.

Tip 8: Keeping those rims a bit puffy

Take care not to “degas” the rim of your pizza as you are spreading your dough! Do NOT ever use a rolling pin! There are many different methods to spread/open your dough ball. I hope to add a few pictures someday of this process.

Tip 9: Baking pizza in a home oven

Ensure that your oven is preheated for a sufficient amount of time (about 1 hour) and bake the pizza within 6 to 8 inches of the top of your oven (ie, your broiler) so that the tops browns sufficiently in conjunction with the bottom of the pizza.

Do not place the stone near the bottom of your oven. I made this mistake for too many years.

After your stone has been preheated sufficiently, the heat from the stone will cook the pizza from the bottom and you can switch the broiler on if you find you need more browning on the top (I now use the broiler to bake my pizzas…more on this sometime in the future).

If you find that your cheese is browning well before your rim attains sufficient color, use partially frozen cheese (ie, place shredded cheese in the freezer while the oven is heating up) and cold sauce or you can drizzle just a bit of olive oil on top of cheese.

Tip 10: Use a pizza stone or steel

Use a pizza stone if you have one. The stone with draw moisture out of the dough and produce a beautifully crisp crust. I use a pizza steel because my stones kept breaking.

Tip 11: Use just the right amount of sauce

Do not use too much pizza sauce – it will make your pizza soggy

Tip 12: Find the right kind of cheese

Do not use low fat cheese to top your pizza or pre-shredded cheese (the former will not melt sufficiently and the latter contains additives that prevent the cheese from sticking together and therefore does not melt very well). The best is low-moisture, whole milk mozzarella.

If you must use pre-shredded cheese, I’ve found that adding the sauce on top of the cheese helps with the melting. Also, do not use too much cheese; apply it sparingly so that you can achieve that mottled NY pizza appearance.

Tip 13: Flour your pizza peel

Use semolina or flour on the bottom of your pizza peel to prevent the pizza dough from sticking but be careful not to overdo it because it will burn.

Tip 14: Learn to launch that pizza

Give the pizza peel a few very small quick jerks to make sure the pizza will easily slide off your pizza peel before attempting to transfer pizza to the oven, and more importantly, rub flour into the peel before placing the dough on top.

Essential Equipment

Please note that as an Amazon affiliate, we earn a small commission if you purchase a product at no additional cost to you.


I adore my baking steel; it’s transformed my home pizzas into restaurant-quality and better. You will love this! A kitchen scale streamlines measurement with remarkable accuracy, while a pizza peel is essential for smoothly sliding pizzas into the oven. And proofing boxes provide an optimal storage for pizza dough fermentation, enhancing flavor, texture, and elasticity.

Baking steel

$99.99
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Kitchen scale

$55.49
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Pizza peel

$28.98
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Proofing

$45.99 ($23.00 / Count)
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Please visit our SHOP page for more recommended tools and equipment to make restaurant-style NY-style pizza at home!

How to Stretch the Pizza Dough

A nice video (from The GoodFellas Pizza School of NY), showing how to stretch the dough:

YouTube video

How to Freeze Homemade Pizza Dough

  • After mixing dough and dividing into balls, place dough in refrigerator for at least 24 hours.
  • Place dough balls on baking sheet lined with plastic wrap or parchment paper, cover loosely with plastic wrap and freeze until firm (~ 2 to 3 hours or up to overnight).
  • Wrap frozen dough balls individually in plastic and store in zipper-lock bags for up to 4 weeks.
  • When ready to bake, transfer unwrapped dough into the refrigerator for 12 to 24 hours before making pizza.
  • Bring dough to room temperature for 20 to 60 minutes before baking (less time for hot kitchen/summer and more time for cool kitchen)

Pizza Dough Calculator

Need more dough? Less dough? Try out our new Pizza Dough Calculator to calculate the weights to get it just right!

Have More Questions?

Please See My NY Pizza FAQ

If you tried this recipe, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below! SUBSCRIBE for more recipes.

📖 Recipe

photo of a NY style pizza with slice missing

The Best New York Style Pizza Dough

The best, authentic NY pizza dough recipe for making pizza dough at home. This is the best thin crust pizza ever! You will never want take out again!
4.90 from 660 votes
Author: Marie
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 6 minutes
Resting time 1 day
Total Time 1 day 21 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine American, Italian
Servings 32 slices
Calories 91 kcal

Equipment

  • pizza stone or pizza steel for baking
  • Standing mixer optional or hand knead
  • kitchen scale highly recommended instead of volume measures

Ingredients
 

Original Recipe for Four 14-Inch Pizzas; want to make more or less? Use the pizza dough calculator

  • 6.5 cups (796 g) all purpose flour or bread flour (weighing is most accurate!)
  • 2 1/4 cups (493 g) water barely cold water (17.4 oz per 2 1/4 cups)
  • 1 teaspoon (3.5 g) instant dry yeast
  • 2.5 teaspoons (15.6 g) salt
  • 2 teaspoons (7.8 g) sugar
  • 1 tablespoon (11.8 g) olive oil

1 Pound of Dough (~454 grams) (use the pizza dough calculator to make more or less dough)

  • 2 1/4 cups (274.5 g) all purpose flour or bread flour
  • 3/4 cup (170.2 g) water
  • 1/2 teaspoon instant dry yeast
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon olive oil

Instructions
 

Mixing the Dough

  • Place water in mixing bowl.
  • In a separate bowl, mix salt and yeast (and sugar if using) into flour
  • Combine flour/salt/yeast mixture into water and mix until all the flour has been incorporated.
  • After flour has been totally incorporated, add oil and knead for about 4 to 5 minutes (see note)
  • Test final dough temperature, which should ideally be between high 70s to low 80s (optional)

Dividing and Rising

  • Divide dough into 4 equal pieces (using a digital scale if possible; each ball should weigh 11.5 oz [~326 grams]), shape into a ball, and place in greased, sealed quart-sized container or oiled/greased freezer bag and refrigerate overnight or up to 72 hours (After much experimenting, I have concluded that I like 3 days best but day 2 is good too).

Assembly and Baking

  • The following day, remove your dough balls within 1 hour or less of baking and allow the dough to come to room temperature. (the dough will tend to blister more if the dough has not been allowed to come to room temperature however, I often bake coldish dough without problems, just some bubbling)
  • In the meantime, place your pizza stone in oven and preheat at 550 degrees (depending on thickness of your stone and your oven’s power) for at least 1 hour
  • Open each dough ball using care not to degas, transfer to a pre-floured pizza peel (or on parchment paper), and top with your favorite sauce, cheese, or other toppings.
  • Transfer pizza from peel to oven or slide parchment paper onto preheated pizza pan/stone and bake for 4 to 6 minutes each until browned on top and cheese has melted but not burned.
  • Enjoy!

Notes

Weighing Ingredients 
  • Use of weight based measurements is highly recommended instead of US Customary. You will need a kitchen scale. 
  • METRIC amounts DO NOT correspond exactly to the US Customary amounts because, for example, 796 grams equals 6.4 cups (and most can’t measure 0.4 cups or 0.22 cups). Recipe was based on grams.  
TO MAKE MORE OR LESS DOUGH
KNEADING
  • If you want to use the dough the next day, knead a little more (slow speed for about 8 to 10 minutes)
  • If you have time to let the dough rest for 3 days, knead for 4 to 5 minutes, low speed or hand knead.
TO FREEZE THE DOUGH:
  • After mixing dough and dividing into balls, place dough in refrigerator for at least 24 hours.
  • Then, place on baking sheet lined with plastic wrap or parchment paper, cover loosely with plastic wrap and freeze until firm (~ 2 to 3 hours or up to overnight).
  • Wrap frozen dough balls individually in plastic and store in zipper-lock bags to store for up to 4 weeks (longer may work, but results might vary).
  • Before using, transfer unwrapped dough into the refrigerator for 12 to 24 hours before making pizza.
  • Bring dough to room temperature for 20 to 60 minutes before baking (less time for hot kitchen/summer and more time for cool kitchen). 
BAKER’S PERCENTAGES:
  • calculate your own using baker’s percentages: 62% hydration, 0.4% yeast, 2% salt, 1.5% oil, and 1% sugar or use my new pizza dough calculator. 
Have more questions? See our pizza dough FAQ
Nutrition is estimated for one slice of pizza without any toppings. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1SliceCalories: 91kcalCarbohydrates: 18gProtein: 3gFat: 1gSaturated Fat: 0.1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.1gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.4gSodium: 183mgPotassium: 29mgFiber: 1gSugar: 0.3gVitamin A: 0.5IUVitamin C: 0.001mgCalcium: 4mgIron: 1mg
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Try these other pizzas and this NY pizza sauce: 
Buffalo style (one of my absolute favorites)
White with prosciutto
White with spinach and feta
Pizza sauce 

1,823 Comments

  1. Best Pizza ever think you so much! I have made pizza tons of times and while it was pretty good nothing compares to this. I love New York style pizza. The 14 tips and the video on how to work the dough just made it all come together for me. PS I shared this on Facebook its great!

  2. Truly a perfect crust. I couldn’t wait to try it so I let one dough ball rise and ate the pizza in a few hours. It was a tasty giant New York slice that folded perfectly. Can’t wait until I let it mature for a couple days for try number two. I used the sugar in the recipe and mixed in active yeast and had no issues with anything. Used a pizza stone, cooked at 550, and it was done in four to five minutes. My whole family loved it. Thank you for your excellent blog.

  3. Hi. Thanks for the recipe. I made two batches recently and am in love!!!
    I followed your recipe exactly, weighing everything and let set in the refrigerator for three days. Took dough out for two hours and then started to make the pizza. The dough would hardly spread out. I followed the video, but it was like elastic?? Took the other ball out of the fridge and it was not. It spread out fine. Next batch a week later the same thing happened. Any ideas on where I went wrong. The pizzas were all good, just the dough would hardly spread. Thank you!!!!

    1. It sounds like the gluten was not developed enough – maybe mix it a little longer next time – that might help. I’m a little confused about why one ball stretched ok and the other did not. Did you make separate batches? Email me and maybe we can trouble shoot some more..

  4. 5 stars
    Used your base recipe as inspiration to create one like home for myself. Linked back to you in the bottom of the recipe, hope you enjoy!

    New Jersey Pizza

  5. Hey thanx for the post. I am from Philly currently living in Olympia, WA and I miss the east coast pizza.

    I only have active dry yeast… HOW do I go about incorporating this into the recipe rather than instant yeast since the active needs to go in water first???

    THANK YOU!!
    Bee

  6. Was really psyched to find this recipe! Have been trying and trying at this recipe for about a month now and have probably made about 7-8 pizzas in our Viking D3 oven. Still doesn’t seem quite right! So I thought I would post my findings here and see what you think I may be doing incorrectly. I suspect the majority of my issues stem from the baking in the Viking oven.

    Tools utilized: Viking D3 oven, Pampered Chef pizza stone (gotta be about 3/8″ thick). This oven only goes up to 500 degrees.

    My baking process: I pre bake the stone at 500 degrees for 1hr. Then I put the pizza in and cook for 4-5 minutes, basically until the toppings can no longer take the heat.

    What I’m seeing:
    1. No matter what I do, the crust underneath does not brown as it should. I get about 1-2″ of brown, crispy crust on the outer rim of the dough where clearly there is enough heat. But underneath the cheese/sauce area (inner pie) it continues to come out of the oven with a lackluster crust.
    2. These toppings get overheated quickly. The cheese absolutely blisters faster than the crust will cook.
    3. The dough on the outer rim of the pizza seems well cooked and is crispy. The dough on the inner portion of the pie is chewy and doughy.

    Things I’ve tried to troubleshoot:
    a. Freeze the cheese and sauce while the stone is preheating. No dice, same issues.
    b. Freeze toppings, turn off oven once pizza is on the stone (hoping for stone, itself to do more of a slow cook to the crust). No dice.
    c. Freeze toppings, turn off oven, turn on broiler to get quick heat from top to bottom. No dice, same issues.
    d. Relocate pizza from bottom to top, and from top to middle. Same issues.

    Am I not letting the stone cook long enough? Do I need to get a different stone or perhaps a perforated sheet so heat can get to the inner pie?

    Is this oven not cooking hot enough? Or is it cooking too hot?

    Also, is there a cheese brand you would recommend? So far Poly-O has been the most flavorful for us.

    And lastly, I’m hoping to get more flavor onto the crust’s outer rim. We’ve been brushing it with butter and then tried olive oil. Wasn’t much of an improvement. Any suggestions?

    Help! And thanks for reading!

    Pete

    1. Hi Pete – Hmmm…this is tough. I will say that my pizza isn’t really done in 4 to 5 minutes either but my oven isn’t burning the top by then either.

      That said, maybe your oven is just really strong. After preheating the stone, try lowering by 20 degrees or so. After all, the stone is cooking the bottom and it sounds as though the stone can’t keep up with the oven’s power of cooking the top.

      Everything else you tried is what I’d recommend and I would keep doing the cold toppings and partially frozen cheese. This is what we have to do when we don’t have pizza ovens at home.

      Maybe buy a cheap oven thermometer (CDN brand) too and check the true temp of the oven.

      I don’t favor any brand of mozzarella cheese, although it has be to low-moisture so it doesn’t make your pizza soggy and fresh grated works nicely. Try different combinations too like parmesan, asiago, etc.

      For the crust, I find that I get nice flavor from the extended cold ferment and don’t generally use other flavor enhancers; maybe you need a garlic-infused oil- that would certainly kick it up!

  7. HI! Looks like a great recipe! But I was wondering if I could substitute the IDY for active dried yeast? because it’s all I have!
    This is pretty Urgent!
    Thanks x

  8. How do I know when the dough is kneaded enough? I can never tell. In that same vein, how will the final results differ if I under or over knead the dough?

    1. Hi Taylor – this is a good question and one that would be answered differently depending on who you ask. It also depends on the protein content of your flour. If you are using bread flour for pizza, I feel overkneading could result in a very tough and leathery crust. So, I’d say to err on the side of caution and knead less especially if you are using a cold proofing method like I describe – it could be easier to use all purpose flour but you have to be careful of the brand because you want the protein content to be pretty decent (I use King Arthur; the brand matters) – their AP flour’s protein content is maybe 2% less (11 to 12%) than their bread flour (up to 13%) and it can result in a more tender crumb, which some people prefer. So, the answer is to make a note of your knead time and knead less if you are finding the crust to be too tough. Underkneading dough can result in less gluten formation and can result in a “flat” pizza – but this won’t happen if you use a cold proof since the gluten will develop in the refrigerator over time (think how the no-knead doughs work). I hope this is helpful – it is a tough question to answer and one that is a personal choice based on your preferences taste-wise.

  9. 5 stars
    What a great recipe!
    For as far back as I can remember, my dad–bless his heart–was on the quest to make the perfect pizza crust (practically until the day he died over 25 years ago). He tried so hard, tweaking his recipe over and over again but never quite discovering how to get that thin, chewy yet crispy coated crust. Too bad he left us before the advent of the internet, google, and your wonderful contribution here. On my first try, I made a pizza with a crust that I’m sure my dad would have considered to be “perfect”. Thanks so much for writing with so many process details that even a first-timer couldn’t go wrong.

    1. Jenni, I’m so glad to hear the recipe worked for you! I agree that we have a huge advantage these days using the internet for recipes and cooking tips. It’s a great thing. Thanks for sharing the story of your dad – it made me think of my own dad and his love for the kitchen. Wonderful memories.

  10. Excellent recipe! But, I am not able to copy/paste so that I can put a copy on my hard drive. I would love to be able to make the additions that I found in other comments and keep an electronic copy on my computer.

    1. Hi Martha – I think you can click the print button and save it that way? I’m not really good at tech and not sure why you can’t copy/paste but someone just recently told me the same thing about my photos. I’m guessing it’s a built-in feature of the site theme that I’m using. In any event, email me (see contact page or click the little envelope that is currently near the top right of the page) if you can’t get that to work and I’ll send you an electronic copy of the recipe. I’m not sure i can help you with the comment-directed changes…

    2. Hi martha – this has been bugging me and so I just figured out something that might work. YOu can click on the print button that is in the recipe button. After the pop-up appears you can copy and paste from there instead of printing the recipe out. Hope this helps!

      1. LOL Marie, Don’t worry about it. I tried that too and it only brings up my printer options. There is not a pop up of the recipe. It may be my system. No biggie. I will just print it out and scan it. Thanks for all your help though. We are going to have pizza this weekend and the grand kids are going to make the dough…..using your recipe. 🙂 I will give feedback when all is done. Thanks again!

  11. Hello Marie, I haven’t tried your recipe yet but I was planning on it this weekend. You have amazing reviews and I love pizza so I am looking forward to it. I had a question thought. Do you mix all of this by hand or could I use a Stand Mixer?

  12. 5 stars
    I was going at it all wrong! With these tips and recipe my pizza have gone from flat and cakey to leavened and tastey.

  13. For your awesome pizza in the pic, did you use all purpose flour or bread flour? Also, can the dough be made in a bread machine?

    1. Hi Jen – I’ve used both all purpose or bread flour, but I recommend bread flour. Sorry I can’t recall which I used in the picture but if I had to guess I would say bread flour since that’s what I use most often

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